Saturday, January 16, 2016

First miniatures off the desk this year are these three completed 1/72nd aircraft, most were base coated but not completed. They consist of two Roden Pfalz DIIIa and a Revell albatross DIII all with wartime miniatures pilots. Theses aircraft represent the Jagdstaffel under the command of Rudolf Berthold who commanded from August to October 1917. There are two more aircraft to be completed before I move onto Rabens Ravens.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Well a happy New year to all of my fellow gamers and bloggers' out there, I have been thinking about what I would like to achieve this year with my gaming and modelling today, so I have decided to commit something to paper.

My primarily goal this year is that I would like to improve my airbrushing skills and use it a lot more, buy some video tutorials and even going for a lesson or two are high on my list. I currently have a Aztek 430 with a number of nozzles, I am sort of happy with it, but may fork out some more cash and move to a Iwata after using one on a friends model car, I found the control and clean up much easier.

Post more posts on my blogs, it helps with motivation I think!

I will not be competing in any major two day tournaments or competitions throughout the year and I am only committing to weekend friendly matches and club games with mates, the odd game at my place or theirs, rather than the hustle and bustle of a tournament at a convention. I do plan on travelling to the USA to visit Historicon this year for a look though.

I am planning on not buying to much of the latest ooohhh shiny offering and offloading a few armies this year, most are complete, some I am just bored with or are just part complete and I have lost interest. This will free up space and reduce my collection size plus adding some cash to the pocket. On the hit list, 28mm BC Persians, Celts, Middle republicans, Imperial Romans, ECW and 30YW, French WSS, ACW, Clan War and some 40k, along with some 20mm ww2 and moderns excess to my needs, 20mm Vietnam, and finally 28mm moderns.

Monday, January 4, 2016

I have decided to do a review of my 2015, firstly I would like to say that the move to Sydney was a necessary one (due to a divorce and Work) and I do miss my mates around the coffee table in sunny Goulburn, however it has been a liberating year for my hobby as a whole with no peer pressure to follow any real flavour of the month at the club.

Gaming has been quite good, participated in a few Goulburn Valiant Stormer meets, even managing to get a place in a Impetus tournament, I even had few mid week gamesman. I am planning to do a lot more gaming this year, making it a high priority to use my newly painted modern 20mm especially.

I feel I have spent less time at my table this year but still produced quite a large Medieval army progressing my English and Scotish Lords for the battle Lewes, I still have a number to paint especially cavalry, and also need to take photos of the 400 odd 28mm figures that were completed ( maybe sometime this month) and add them to the blog.

More Renn Polish were completed also along with customer orders for 28mm imperial Romans, late Romans, ACW, Colonials, WW1 and some 7YW figures. I also started rebasing my republicans and celts, this is still underway at the moment. I even started a 28mm Mithradatic/ Successor army using a mix of plastic and metals and I plan to finish this in the next few months leading up to winter.

WW2 20mm was another focus and I managed to complete another battn of French, a few Germans and a few moderns have also left the painting desk, and all are posted on my WW2 blog.

I have also enjoyed painting larger scale figures in 2015, receiving three commissions and starting two for myself and plan to make it a focus in 2016.

In November I travelled for three weeks to the UK and managed to walk a number of battlefields, Battle/Hastings, Lewes, Evesham (Barons Wars) Tewksbury, St Albans (Wotr) and finally Bristol, Worcester and Stowe on the wold (ECW) I had a blast and the majority of my pictures are either of armour, effigies etc or battlefields.

I was amazed though that most locals were unaware of the history surrounding them, whether in be Iron Age fort, a Roman house, a Wotr battlefield or ECW battlefield. The best museum award was a tye between three, The Wallace Collection, St Albans Roman ruins and Bletchley park.

I still am undecided what to concentrate on in 2016, but I am thinking 20mm WW2 will be priority, followed by Medievals, and the rest following along behind.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Wartime Miniatures have released their long awaited 1/72nd scale pilots for WW1, these will fit into most if not all model aircraft on the market. Four different pilot options with mixed clothing combinations will give enough variation for any Jasta leader out there. I have purchased 20 till fit my current needs. I also noted that two of them would also be suitable for ww2 pilot figures too.

About Me

I have a fascination with History so I read a lot, preferring it to TV, my interest in reading lead me to wargaming and re-enactment during my life.
My main periods of interest are Greek 5th cent, Roman republican, Imperial and late,Sassanid empire, Dark age Norman, early medieval England, late 17th and 18th centuries France and Napoleonic German states, also a little ww2.